The recruitment dynamics of stream insect larvae: oviposition and egg mortality of hydrobiosid caddisflies

Abstract

Population ecology seeks to explain how and why biotic populations vary in abundance through time and space. Many populations are patchily distributed through space, comprising a number of local populations interconnected by dispersal. For species with such patchy or ‘metapopulation’ structures, the size and internal dynamics of local populations can be greatly influenced by the number of new individuals that enter the population via birth and immigration (estimated as ‘recruitment’). Local population size may be set by density-dependence if recruitment is high (i.e. above carrying capacity), or by factors affecting recruitment if recruitment is below carrying capacity. Thus, understanding ..